32 The Principles of Beautiful Web Design Expansive Footers This one is less of a trend and more an ongoing phenomenon. I featured expansive footers in the first edition of this book, and these continue to grow today, both in size and in the types of information people are putting in them. Rather than using the footer for just essential links and a copyright notice, many sites are utilizing this once-neglected piece of page real estate to include contact information, expanded site navigation, and social media content. Although putting a site’s main navigational element at the bottom of the page is a bad idea, including “bonus” navigation and content in that space is an obvious solution. A great example of this trend is YoDiv’s 24 massive footer section. Figure 1.33. Presenting extra content in the footer at YoDiv See also: ■ Mozilla at http://mozilla.org/ ■ Creamy CSS at http://creamycss.com/ ■ SitePoint at http://sitepoint.com/ Bare-bones Minimalism Similar to the navigationless magazine style and quite contrary to the expansive footer concept, many sites are removing a lot of the standard web content fare. Minimalist design is all about reducing 24 http://yodiv.com/

Layout and Composition 33 your design to the most essential elements. In Figure 1.34, Analog Coop 25 accomplishes this by reducing its copy to a single, fun-to-read page. For Kha Hoang, 26 being a minimalist is having a home page with simply a list of portfolio links, a quote on design, and some contact info. It’s an easy concept to apply: just go through each element of each page and ask yourself what it’s adding to your website. If you’re without an answer, toss it out. Figure 1.34. Two flavors of minimalism: the Analog Coop and the portfolio of Kha Hoang Minimalism isn’t a new design trend by any stretch of the imagination—even on the Web. In the art world, the minimalist movement of the 1960s and ’70s was a reaction against the overly selfexpressive era of abstract expressionism. Similarly, the recent explosion in minimalism and singlepage designs on the Web is a reaction against the overly interactive Web 2.0 era. It’s an attempt at balancing out the hustle and bustle of social media with the equivalent to a peaceful café or quiet art gallery. See also: ■ Brand New at http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/ ■ Sage Media at http://www.sagemediari.com/ Fresh Trends With every passing year, new techniques pop up that are interesting or simply offer new ways of getting attention. They employ new capabilities or new scripts, and are rapidly adopted across the field of web design. The latest trends do just that—harnessing the power of JavaScript or CSS3 to add new capabilities, effects, and functionality that we’ve never seen before. 25 http://analog.coop/ 26 http://khahoang.com/